Hermaphrodites and the Medical Invention of Sex Book

Exactly the sort of book I've been looking for. The historical approach to the subject explained a great deal about how we've come to think about "hermaphrodites." The book also points out how our notion of gender has hardly changed (it's almost become more strict) and how medicine deals with intersexed people. Dreger touches on almost everything I know of in gender theory. She addresses the history of sex from the hermaphrodite perspective, she addresses the development of sexualities, points out the dominant heterosexist culture and mentions prominent theorists who would seem to be her predecessors. While the writing is on the dry and factual side (which I don't mind at all) it was not overly academic or jargon filled.

She addresses the history of hermaphrodites while pointing out the inconsistencies on how "medical men" interpreted sex. She patiently explains that in the 1800s sex has many assumptions that we've broken down into smaller categories. Sex did not only imply a person's physical sex, but gender and sexuality. She mentions Focault and Butler, who were/are theorists in the same course of study- that is they approached systems from a historical developmental point of view. Judith Butler is currently one of the most influential authorities in queer and gender theory. Dreger manages to work in pieces and parts of theory without teaching it in an academic way.

She doesn't explain the masculine heterosexist culture indepth. I read Gender Knot by Allan Johnson, which didn't have to do with intersexed people, but with the social system and gender issues. Dreger writes about the current situation with intersexed people and doctor's authority. This was in 98, but more current books don't show a vast amount of improvement as far as the medical scene. Even though Dreger's tone is matter-of-fact, I don't think she shows any sympathy for doctors and their deeds (or sins.) Personally, I'm inclined not to sympathize with the barbaric culture that does cosmetic, often problematic and damaging surgery on infants. Fixing Sex by Karkazis is a book that focuses on intersex people and the current treatment (published in 08) of intersex "conditions." In a more forgiving way, Karkazis addresses the predicament doctors, parents and patients find themselves in.

Like I wrote before, Dreger's book was exactly what I was looking for and I thought it was very good. I would give this book 5 stars, but didn't based on the version of the book I got. I bought a digital version of the book and none of the images were in it. I didn't think it was a big deal at first, but as the book continued and Dreger talked about the images the digital version didn't have it was really annoying. It felt like I was missing a third of the content. I've not had this issue with any other digital book I've bought and sent customer service a message about this missing content. Hopefully it'll be fixed.